Special 125th Anniversary Issue – Bulletin

2018 Annual Meeting Academic Bowl

2017 Endoscopic Ear Surgery Workshop

Attendees at the 2019 Annual Meeting President's Reception, held at Mardi Gras World in New Orleans, Louisiana

connection and care for one’s colleagues that fosters the thousands of smaller, informal dinners, coffee chats, and hallway reunions that make up the real body of the meeting outside the lecture halls. But these connections go beyond simple friendship. In the space between us, we carry the living memory of our field - of the mentors, patients, leaders, and events that shaped our individual and collective approach to patient care, to science, to advocacy, and to self-definition. When our founders read formal eulogies of members departed during the early meetings, when our colleagues comforted each other in Denver, Colorado, hotel lobbies and chartered buses home in the aftermath of 9/11, when we acknowledged the exhaustion on friends’ faces as we “zoomed together” for “Office Hours” and panel preparations during the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting, we affirmed that our greatest asset in our goal to be the global leader in optimizing quality ear, nose, and throat patient care remains the relationships from which all our wonderful work is realized. This is never more evident than in the halls of the Annual Meeting.

the education mission. In his Brief History of Otolaryngology in the United States from 1847 – 1947, Dr. Ralph Fenton wrote that “...the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology began as a western group, in Kansas City in 1896. However, its policy of round table luncheon conferences [that] developed into intensive teaching courses... have brought it the largest and most influential nationwide membership.” When I interviewed for the Annual Meeting Program Coordinator position, I was asked what I thought was the most important element of the meeting. Without question, it is the tone of collegiality set by our earliest leaders that has been carried through our meetings ever since. We have experienced a wide range of organized social experiences at the Annual Meeting, from the Niagara Falls outing with a Canadian reception during the 1905 Buffalo, New York, meeting, to the robust “spouses” programs of the 1950s-90s, to the small group botany and allergy tours of more recent years, to the modern presidential receptions showcasing the culinary and cultural highlights of the host city. These formalized activities create a backdrop of

picture or exhibit; and second, an indirect, involuntary or unconscious influence which is not definable but is actively stimulating...I never come away from a meeting of the American Academy without an increased interest in my own work.” There is something intangible, but inspiring and beautiful, about the days in fall when we have come together for the past 125 years. In the space between One of the most important aspects of the 1896 meeting program is not what is printed on the page so much as what is not delineated in the written agenda—the empty spaces and mealtimes surrounding the scientific sessions. Just as with every Academy meeting since, this first gathering was filled with chance meetings in the corridors, mealtimes in hotel restaurants, and evening recitations of the events and presentations of the day with new colleagues and old friends. The particularly strong sense of camaraderie and social connection embraced at the Annual Meeting have always been a key to the Academy’s success and expansion, both in terms of membership and in the success of

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ENTNET.ORG/BULLETIN AAO-HNS BULLETIN SPECIAL EDITION: 125TH ANNIVERSARY